I have been having trouble with DS's day sleeps & went to Karitane yesterday to get some help with settling/sleep. Since then, DS has had 5 successful 2 hour day sleeps. I can't tell you how excited I am!!!

Anyway, here are some of the things that I have found helpful:
1. Wrap bub even - even if he protests - it really does help (so that his arms don't fly around and startle him awake)
2. Set up some consistent sleep cues - eg. dim lighting, soft music, same location each time, dummy
3. Watch for tired signs (jerky movements, grizzling, clenched fists, yawning, rubbing eyes, cranky face - wrinkled forehead) - as soon as I see these, I wrap him up & put him in the cot.
4. Stay with him until he is asleep. Hold him until he stops crying, then put him in the cot. Settle him to sleep IN the cot (eg. massage his tummy in clockwise direction to remove any wind, rocking him by moving hand back & forth on his tummy, patting his tummy, stroking down his forehead to encourage him to close his eyes, hold in dummy, making rhythmic SHH-SHH-SHH noise, hand on his hands to keep them still).

Hope this helps! I know it's so frustrating & exhausting when bubs doesn't sleep. At first I was prepared to just carry him around during the day - but I wasn't getting much done & was so exhausted!! If you can persist with the settling in the bassinette, it really does help!